The National Association of REALTORS monitors real estate trends by surveying home sellers and buyers to find out what is taking place within their industry. The results of these real estate surveys will help us to know housing trends and prepare for better results in 2012. Some of the highlights of the report are listed here.

1. There were slightly less people using the internet in order to search for a home with 88% using the internet in 2011 compared to 90% in 2009.

2. The average home buyer looked for 12 weeks and saw 12 homes before making a buying decision.

3. This past year first time buyers were 37% and that was down from 50% the previous year.

4. Nearly 25% of home buyers thought the approval process was was somewhat more difficult than expected and the survey results showed that 16% thought it was much more difficult than expected.

5. The percent of buyers who use a real estate agent is now up to 89% and that has been a steady increase from the results in 2001 when it was 69%.

6. The results for home sellers upon selling their home showed that 50% bought a larger and more expensive home.

7. The selling price of the average home was 95% of the final asking price with 61% reducing the oringinal listing price at least once.

8. The three most important criteria when selecting a neighborhood were; whether or not the homes were affordable, distance and time to a job, and the quality of the neighborhood.

9. The average home seller had been in their home nine years compared to the 2007 when the average was six years.

10. The average sales price when an agent was involved was $215,000 and the average price for a for sale buy owner was $150,000. Of the 10% market that was sold as a for sale by owner, 40% had known the buyer previously.

Another evolving real estate trend that was not on the survey is how home buyers are searching for homes on the internet. There has been a transistion to search real estate listings by using a map based MLS search and home buyers are now also searching for real estate using a mobile device. Home buyers can now be in front of the home and access the information about that home from their smart phones. Diverse Solutions, who were recently acquired by Trulia, has long been known as a trendsetter for real estate search technology and offers these options along with other popular real estate search tools. Search over 50,000 Florida real estate listings on DavidCraven.com and use this real estate search tool first hand.

David Craven
RE/MAX Realtec Group
David@DavidCraven.com
www.DavidCraven.com
727-698-9995